China ... plans to invest $600 billion in developing its national smart grid over the next decade" http://xrl.us/bij6yi
The EPRI report estimated the cost of upgrading the U.S. grid could range from $338 to $476 billion, up from $165 billion in a 2004 forecast. Benefit estimates have also skyrocketed to a range of $1.2 to $2 trillion, up from $660 billion estimated in 2004.

Smart Grid videos

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http://xrl.us/bij3ti A new report from Pike Research forecasts that 276 million smart grid communications nodes will be shipped worldwide from 2010 to 2016, with annual shipments increasing dramatically from 15 million in 2009 to 55 million by 2016... this will represent a total industry investment of $20.3 billion during the seven-year forecast period, with annual revenues increasing from $1.8 billion in 2009 to $3.1 billion by 2016..."

Ambient's nodes connect more than 500,000 end devices in the Duke network, and can support a variety of smart grid applications, in parallel, including but not limited to; advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), distribution automation (DA) and outage management.

Starting at the communications network layer in any smart grid implementation ensures the costs of implementation, operations and communications are optimized and the Ambient node represents a most cost-effective solution, to reduce both capital and operational expenses for utilities.

As there is no one communications technology that is right for all applications and environments across utilities, the Ambient node's ability to support multiple communications protocols simultaneously along with purpose built applications and management system provide a level of visibility and control that utilities have never before enjoyed.

For more information about Ambient or the Ambient Smart Grid Communications Node, or visit them at Booth # 4220 at DistribuTECH 2012 in San Antonio.